Aung San Suui Kyi Has Borrowed the Language of Donald Trump

Danielle Keeton-Olsen , CONTRIBUTOR  

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Attacks on Rohingya are “not happening” 

In the midst of political turmoil, heads of state in Southeast Asia, include Aung San Suui Kyi, have borrowed the language of the most prominent and outspoken national leader, U.S. President Donald Trump. Fake news has become a convenient cover up for attacks on human rights, democracy and criticism of the government.

The government of Myanmar, led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has unrolled a steady stream of denialism on the systematic evictions, rapes and killings of the Muslim Rohingya community in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in the north.

Maung Zarni, a Burmese human rights activists, descried Aung Suu Kyi's public rejection of hundreds of rape cases, telling Al Jazeera this month that in this way, the State Counsallor was contributing to the genocide of the Rohingya people. 

Journalists who are publishing photos and reports of the massacre in the Rakhine state say they face harassment and dismissal, both from state bodies and communities on social media, according to reports from Al Jazeera.

The campaign of denial extended into state television station MNTV, which cut BBC broadcasts at the mention of the Rohingya people.

Simultaneously, the Yangon-based Myanmar Times barely hints at the ongoing crisis, while the cover of Global New Light of Myanmar lauded State Councellor Aung San Suu Kyi’s peace efforts and called her “mum,” as the international community condemned her inability to acknowledge the Rohingya genocide.